Numerous games are readily available which utilize the skill and imagination of players. More recently, word games have become popular utilizing the word skills of players. Such games are challenging, enjoyable, and simultaneously, have an educational value since they require the imagination of the player, utilizing and expanding their word knowledge.
At the present time, one of the more common word building games is SCRABBLE®. In this game, tiles bearing letters are placed on a board to form a crossword type of arrangement.
The scoring of this game depends partially on arbitrary values given to the letters themselves and partially upon the location at which said tiles are placed on the board. A restriction in SCRABBLE® is that a player is required, when forming a new crossword, to use one letter of a word upon the board or an entire word on the board as a root for the new word. Furthermore, the letters, once formed into a word and placed on the board, are static, and cannot be moved.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,410 describes a word forming game, in which a player constructs words using letter tiles. Letter tiles contained either in previously formed words or exposed tiles within the tile pool can be used to create new words. During play it is possible to steal a word previously formed by an opponent. In order to steal a previously formed word, a player must rearrange the letter tiles of the word to be stolen, with the addition of at least one letter tile, such that a new word is created. Upon formation of a new word, a player places the letter tiles forming said word in front of his or her position. The scoring of this game is based upon the number of letter tiles that have been formed into words, which a player has in front of him or herself, in addition to bonus points, if any, signified on said letter tiles.
The above mentioned word games are designed for players with an established vocabulary. Children, however, generally have a limited vocabulary and thus the formation of words, especially the formation of words requiring the inclusion of previously constructed words, becomes more difficult. In order for children to enjoy playing a word game as mentioned above, the method by which the game is played should be modified for simplicity. For example, the aforementioned word game SCRABBLE® has been modified to create a game suitable for children, in which a player is required to match randomly selected letter tiles with the corresponding letters within words, which are printed on one side of the game board in a crossword formation.
In order to maintain the interest of a child a game must be easy to play and entertaining. The present invention provides a method and apparatus for playing a word forming game, which is designed for the enjoyment and education of children by incorporating their identification skills, together with their imagination enabling the formation of words.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,306,153 discloses an educational device which can be used for developing vocabulary and spelling skills which incorporates the spelling of words printed on a board using letter tiles. The device includes a generally rectangular board member that is divided by printed, colored lines into several rectangular sections. Each rectangular section includes a pictorial representation of an object, along with the spelled word corresponding with the name of that object, and a series of side-by-side tile positioning indicia next to the spelled word associated with the illustrated object. A plurality of letter tiles of substantially uniform shape are provided, each letter tile bearing the same color as that of the dividing lines on the board member with which it is to be used, and also bearing a letter of the alphabet on at least one surface. This device while enabling educational purposes does not incorporate the concept of a game in order to possibly maintain the interest of a child upon repeated use of the device.
This background information is provided for the purpose of making known information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.